Information that is returned with search results may be associated with a geographic location. For example, a search might return, as a result, a particular restaurant, museum, bank, or other type of entity. These entities may exist at a physical location, and—when an entity is identified as a search result—it is theoretically possible to provide imagery of the physical location, such as a street-side image of the building in which the entity is located. However, in many cases, the imagery cannot be provided because it has not yet been collected.
Many search engine operators and other information providers seek to collect imagery of many locations so that they can provide this imagery upon request. However, it may not be practical to collect imagery of every existing location. In general, when it is labor-intensive to collect a type of information, there may be only a limited amount of that information available. Imagery that has to be collected from a moving vehicle is one example of information that is labor-intensive to collect, although there are other examples of such information (e.g., information collected through surveys that have to be administered by a live person).